Success in Action Series Part 2: Planning and Preparing for Success

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

― Abraham Lincoln

If you’re like me, when starting a new task, you just want to jump right in and get straight to work. However, often times after I begin, I get stuck, become quickly aware that I need help or input from others, realize that I made the process more complicated than it needed to be, and/or see that I’m in WAY over my head. After some time scratching my head and taking a breath (or several breaths), I have a moment of clarity where I eventually figure out a suitable approach to tackle the work. And while I am normally pleased with the outcome and I am able to complete my given “mission,” I could’ve alleviated much of the stress and challenges I faced if I would’ve just set aside time to do some simple planning in the beginning.

While this may not be your exact experience or approach to managing projects, we all could benefit from more thoughtful planning to better prepare for the work we undertake. Whether you are implementing a new departmental structure or system, spearheading an institution-wide program or series, or formulating and implementing a policy or process for your department, developing a simple plan with some core tenets can save you time, headaches, and undue stress.

I know, I know, planning may not be the most exciting thing to do *insert sleeping emoji* -- But planning is a necessary part of any successful change effort, big or small. Now planning does not mean creating a long, detailed plan that no one has time to read and takes several weeks to complete. Planning is better described as taking the time to create a simple guiding document or action plan that clearly answers three key questions:

1.       What am I trying to accomplish?

2.       How will I make it happen?

3.       How will I know I am successful?

For each of these questions, several underlying criteria can assist you in clarifying them for your work. 

1.       What am I trying to accomplish?

The first step in planning is to be clear about the effort you are undertaking. This is important for two reasons: a) it helps to clarify what is in and out of scope and b) it helps to communicate to others about the work underway and its intended outcomes. Think of this part as creating your elevator speech. If you only had 30 seconds, about average amount of time for an elevator ride with someone, to explain your goal, could you do it?

Describe the work

Articulate the change effort in a sentence or two. For example, if you are creating a new mandatory transfer orientation, a description may be, “We desire to create a revamped, mandatory transfer orientation program that includes peer-to-peer interactions, allows students one-on-one time with an assigned advisor, and provides tailored and more useful information for our transfer student population.” The point here is to push for simplicity and brevity.

Identify a theory of action/rationale:

A theory of action helps connect and align the work to overall goals of the institution or to your specific area. It helps answer the question, “Why are we doing this work?” For instance, using the same scenario as above, a plausible theory of action or rationale could be, “Our research shows that retention rates are significantly higher for transfer students who attend transfer student orientation; however, our current program is optional. We believe if we make our transfer student orientation both more appealing and mandatory, we will see an increase in the retention rate for this group of students.”

2.       How will I make it happen?

This is where you must think about the strategic steps you will take to achieve success.

Identify the big events and actions

The point here is not to lay out a detailed project schedule, but rather to highlight the critical actions or milestones that need to be met. For example, if the work requires training staff, creating and getting a new policy approved, requesting proposals from outside vendors, or approval from Board or leadership, these key milestones should be highlighted in the plan, along with target dates for completion.

Clarify roles and responsibilities:

This one is simple. In most, if not all, situations, you need to collaborate and work with others to accomplish the task at hand. Take time to identify all the key people and departments you need to achieve success and the role you need them to play. 

Identify potential risks and mitigation strategies

It is important to be proactive and realistic about any challenges or hurdles you may encounter when leading your work. While you likely will not anticipate everything, you can think of plausible scenarios that could throw the work off course. For instance, if you know you need to have the buy-in and/or involvement from a few influential faculty or staff, you should think of ways to engage them early on and often throughout the process. Or if you know your effort is taking place around some critical and busy times for your institution or department (e.g., graduation or exams), you may think about the placement of “big events” you previously identified. You know the culture and climate of your institution and how work actually gets done -- use this insight to inform your planning.

3.       How will I know I am successful?

Define success

This is where expected impact comes into play. Asking yourself, “How will the campus and/or my work be different if our efforts are successful?” will help you become clearer on your overall goal(s) and vision for the work ahead. For more information on how to “define success,” refer to this previous post on scaling.

Identify metrics to measure progress

If you have a clear definition of success, you will be able to select the data that will best help you understand and monitor progress toward your goals. For some of our efforts, we can rely on the big metrics such as retention rates, graduation rates, and GPA. But for most of our work, we must look at “smaller” metrics, such as program attendance or number of students served through support services. For our more time-sensitive endeavors, we can identify metrics that measure response and/or processing times of requests, questions, and decisions to students, faculty, and staff. Whatever the metric, it is important to identify data points early in order to see progress over time.

Final comments: Don’t waste time scratching your head; take time in the beginning to answer some key questions about the work. Keep it simple. Keep it short. And continue to make the change happen. Good luck in your efforts!